Kitsune Mask Prop - Industry Collaboration: Production

 In this blog post, I will talk about how I completed my model for my Japanese unit, the Phantom Kitsune, from my Pre-Production assignment. I chose to model the mask as it is a key defining feature of my character and its main source of power and sentience. You can view this character design here. 

Final Renders & SketchFab Model

Kitsune Mask Prop by April on Sketchfab

Drawing Orthographics - Preparing for 3D Modelling

The first step to creating this model was creating the orthograph for it. I first started with just the front to get the general shape of the face. Whilst I made guidelines to create a side view, I struggled to pinpoint exactly how far out I wanted the mouth to be. I decided to keep things simple like traditional kitsune masks.

Front Orthographic

Modelling the Mask

To begin with, I only imported the front orthograph into Autodesk Maya so I can better understand how much depth I wanted. Doing this allowed me to create a top and side view as well.

I started by using a polygon plane as the base primitive in order to build the model's foundation geometry. To align the plane with the front view, I turned it 180 degrees on the Y-axis. In order to preserve accuracy of the mask, I set the plane's width and height to 10. After that, I made sure the plane was symmetrically divided down the middle by aligning it centrally within the orthographic view. This configuration made it easier to create a perfectly symmetrical mask design, which I intended to finish with the mirror tool. I set up the basic geometry, deleted any faces that weren't needed, and then switched to Vertex mode. I then modified each vertex to fit the outline of the mask.

After getting the shape that I wanted, it was time to add depth to the model. I had to take into consideration that back of the mask would make it appear more curved on the side. With the top orthograph, I had to consider the shape of the ears would stand out from the head.

After I added depth to the mask, I was ready to mirror the model.

I did this by going to: Mesh > Mirror (Options) with the following settings:

Mirror Axis: X

Mirror Direction: +

Combine with Original enabled.

Merge Threshold: 0.0001

Mirrored mask without Smooth Mesh Preview (left) and with (right).

After I was happy with the result, I extruded the mask to my desired thickness and then applied Smooth (Mesh > Smooth). 

However, I realised that I missed a crucial element of the mask, which I had forgotten about, which was the horns for the mask so I quickly sketched out some orthographics for the horns and then used the Boolean (difference) to put the horns onto the mask.

Now it was time to UV map my model, this part was the quickest part. All I did was place a cut all the way down the mask and unwrap. I also cut around the mask to make the back of the mask separate from the front. The horns are also separate from the mask because I want them to be a solid colour.

Final UVs with & without texture

Texturing in Substance Painter

Above, I've included the texture too so now I will quickly run down how I textured the mask in Substance 3D Painter. I exported my model into .FBX and baked my textures. I painted all the markings by hand on Substance Painter. Whilst I think it would've been faster exporting it into Photoshop and painting it there for perfect symmetry, I decided it would look more authentic and natural if I painted everything myself even if the markings are off slightly. For the black markings, I made sure they were not reflective at all so it looked more eerie. The red and yellow markings are glossy like if they were painted or plastic. 

Applying textures & Rendering

This step includes exporting textures and applying each of the maps onto the model then creating a scene to render.

I applied all my maps to my model by going to:

Windows > Settings & Preferences > Plug-in Manager > Search 'Substance'

This enables the Substance tab in my workspace. I then go to Apply workflow to maps, which is the button that I have circled in the screenshot below.

After that, I import all of my maps respectively, as seen below, and click apply.

This means that my model is ready to render. I placed several area lights, placed a camera, and played around with the settings to get the desired look.

I also changed my render settings to render a high quality scene without noise or fuzziness.

I rendered from front, top and side view as well as my camera view in 1920 x 1080 format and placed them all together below.

Conclusion

To conclude, this prop took me around 6 hours in total to design, model, texture and render. The longest part was the texturing but I found it the most enjoyable. I have little experience with Substance Painter so each time I get the chance to use it, I get the chance to play around with the tools. Each time I revisit Maya, I become more familiar with the tools and learn something new whilst reapplying my current skills.